On this day, July 11, 1899, Theodolfo Mertel died, the last cardinal who was not ordained a priest, something that is currently not possible as established by the Code of Canon Law, the law of the universal Church.
Who was Teodolfo Mertel?
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Teodolfo Mertel was a lay lawyer who became a cardinal without having been ordained a priest, according to the website Catholic-Hierarchyspecialized in the bishops of the world.
He was born in the city of Allumiere, in the province of Lazio, which is currently in Italy but then belonged to the disappeared Papal States. He studied at the local parish school, run by the Capuchin friars of Tolfa, and then at the seminary of Montefiascone.
After completing his humanities studies there, he attended the Sapienza University of Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in Civil and Canon Law in 1828.
Thus he became a lawyer of the Roman Curia in 1831, where he was quickly promoted to the position of judge, and then to that of Auditor of the Papal Treasury. He was also Prefect of the Congregation of San Ivo, which defended the poorest free of charge.
Pope Pius IX created him cardinal on March 15, 1858 without having been ordained a priest. Two months later, on May 16, the same Pope ordained him deacon.
He participated in the 1878 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIII. Mertel acted as protodeacon and crowned the new pontiff, since the then cardinal protodeacon, Prospero Caterini, could not do so due to illness.
In 1884, Pope Leo XIII appointed him Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, a position he held until his death, which occurred in his hometown, in 1899.
Can a man who is not a priest be a cardinal?
The Code of Canon Law, the law that governs the Catholic Church, established in 1917 that this was not possible. The most current version, the one from 1983, also highlights that it is not possible.
Only a man who is at least a priest can be created cardinal.
Canon 351 § 1 establishes that “to be promoted to Cardinals, the Roman Pontiff freely chooses among those men who have received at least the priesthood,” that is, who are priests, “and who stand out notably for their doctrine, customs, piety and prudence in “issue management.”
Furthermore, it is specified that those who are created cardinals, if they are not bishops, “must receive episcopal consecration.”
On some occasions, the Pope has exempted some cardinals from being ordained bishops and they have served in their new dignity as presbyters, that is, only as priests.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.